enemies, especially those who were wealthy. The poorer members were true
to a man, and I am confident will remain so; and if I am spared, I will
make the wealth of the others dance for their vile treatment. I have a
thousand men who but wait my call. When I say the word, though they are
of the same brotherhood, yet having also experienced the treachery and
oppression of the higher class in common with myself, they will make war
upon them whenever the signal is given."

Here he stopped for a few minutes, and then began to state the little
trouble it would have given his friends to have aided him if they had
felt disposed.

"But I am an invalid, and God knows I do not deserve such treatment."
(The reader may think it strange that such a man should call upon his
Maker, especially when he reads the constitution of the secret conclave,
of which he was a member. The phrase "God knows," was used often in his
private conversation.) "These persons I have always considered my
friends, and have never given them occasion to be any thing else.
Finding, however, that I had no hope from them, and that I must stand my
trial, I was willing to make use of other means. I therefore agreed to
proposals made by the most wealthy of my friends, and yielded to their
arrangements, in order, if possible, to escape punishment. There was a
man by the name of Taylor, the same whose trial is now pending, whom
they feared, and who was known to community as an accomplished villain.
He was the person selected upon whom it was designed to heap the burden
of the guilt. By that means, the attention of our prosecutors would be
diverted. The plan was set in operation, and soon the infamy of Taylor
was sounded from Maine to the confines of Texas. They had their agents
in almost every city to help on the work. From the first, I had but
little hope of success in this manoeuvre, but consented reluctantly to